Oldham council to cut agency spending after splashing £56m in four years

Oldham council says spending on agency workers will come down after the authority shelling out £56m in four years.

Figures from a freedom of information request, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, showed “eyewatering sums” were spent on temporary workers in social care, children, environmental services, and more.

The town hall spent more than £20m on agency workers in 2023, the figures showed, but this fell to nearly £10m last year. It spent more than £9m in total on agency staff in 2021, and £16.5m in 2022.

Oldham council’s deputy leader, Coun Abdul Jabbar, accepted there has been an increase in agency costs, but said the overall amount of spending is coming down and there are plans to reduce this further.

This is being done by pushing to transfer agency roles back to permanent jobs in Oldham.

Recent reports have found that councils across the north west are spending more on agency workers than previously.

A report by the Local Government Association last year found that town halls are becoming more reliant on agency staff, and said there was an ‘adult social care workforce crisis’ behind the problem.

It comes at a time when budgets for many councils are having to stretch thinner each year, with some having to make cuts to local services.

Oldham’s Lib Dem group leader, Coun Howard Sykes MBE, said agency staff are “filling the gaps” in services across the borough.

“The Labour-run council needs to look at which agency workers can be made permanent and where we can be recruiting locally,” he added.
“If there is a job of work to be done and the cash to pay for it, these should be permanent jobs for local people.

“At the moment, Oldham council is spending more money for short-term staffing solutions, and that hurts the standard of services residents receive at the same time as hurting council taxpayers in the pocket.”

Coun Jabbar said bringing more agency workers back to permanent roles is “absolutely a key priority” in Oldham.

“The council has experienced increases in agency costs over recent years due to high inflation, an increased demand for social care particularly in children’s services, market conditions and the availability of permanent staff.

“The transfer of services provided by in-house company the Unity Partnership back to the council in 2022/23 meant that a significant amount of agency expenditure previously incurred by Unity Partnership is recorded as agency expenditure incurred by the council.

“These figures show that there has been a significant reduction in agency expenditure, and we expect to see a considerable decrease in agency costs in the next financial year.”